1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a digital camera. More particularly, the present invention relates to a digital camera capable of being collected for reuse, collecting system thereof, and image viewing method.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventionally, silver-salt analog cameras have been provided as image photographing means. As such analog cameras, inexpensive cameras of “film-with-lens” type are commercially available.
In recent years, digital cameras have been increasingly placed on the market. Images photographed with the digital cameras can be stored as digital data, making it possible to process the images or transfer them over a network such as the Internet. Accordingly, the digital cameras have been increasingly demanded.
Although the digital cameras have become popular for such reasons, those having a large number of pixels are required in order to obtain an image of as high quality as a picture of the analog cameras. However, such digital cameras having a large number of pixels are not readily available to ordinary users because of their high price.
In order to enable anyone to enjoy the function of such a digital camera at a low cost, a possible approach is to make the digital camera be usable over a number of times. In that case, however, reuse would be difficult if a user disassembles or uses the digital camera in an abusive manner or unauthorized manner.
When an image is picked-up by a camera, image quality of an object is sometimes degraded because of lens aberration, as the camera lens has its own inherent aberration including distortion aberration and chromatic aberration of magnification.
In order to correct the degradation in image quality resulting from the lens aberration, the image has been corrected at a mini lab or a processing station.
In addition to such aberration, some lenses may have unevenness in brightness, that is, the brightness differs from the central portion to the peripheral portion of the lens. In such a case, image correction appropriate for the lens has been necessary.
FIG. 20 is a block diagram showing a process of image correction in a conventional camera.
Referring to FIG. 20, when the camera is a silver salt type camera 110, a film 111 containing the images picked-up by the silver salt camera 110 is received by a mini lab 120. Here, film 111 is developed by a developing machine 121, focus adjustment and edge enhancement processes are performed on the image by an image correcting apparatus 122, and prints 130 are output.
FIG. 21 is a block diagram showing the image processing when a camera is the silver salt, APS (Advance Photo System) type camera 112.
Referring to FIG. 21, in a silver salt APS camera 112, it is possible to record lens information 114 of silver salt APS camera 112 on film 113. A user brings the film 113 having lens information 114 recorded thereon to a mini lab 125, where development process takes place. Here, mini lab 125 is a digital laboratory, and hence image correction is performed in a digital manner.
More specifically, film 113 is developed by developing machine 126, and image correction is performed by image correcting apparatus 127. At this time, image correction is performed using the data from correction information database 128, based on lens information 114. Thereafter, prints 131 are provided.
In the examples shown in FIGS. 20 and 21, images are not corrected on the recorded film. Further, image correction is possible only by an image correction supporting laboratory.
FIG. 22 is a block diagram showing the image correction process when the camera is a digital camera 115. Referring to FIG. 22, image data picked-up by digital camera 115 are stored in memory 116, and the user processes the data on a personal computer 140 of his/her own. Here, software and the like for image processing have been installed in personal computer 140, and by an image correcting program 141, the image taken out from the memory 116 is corrected, with a reference to a correction information database 142. Thereafter, the data are stored in a storage device 143 such as a memory or a hard disk, printed by a printer, and a photograph print out 144 is provided.
The image correcting process has been performed in the above described manner for various conventional cameras. In the case of silver salt camera and silver salt APS camera, the image correction is performed not on the film itself on which the image is stored. Further, correction has been possible only by an image correction supporting laboratory.
In the case of a digital camera, the necessity of image correction bothers the user. Further an image correction processing software is necessary for each camera, requiring considerable expense to obtain a desired corrected image.